Body Work

I'm planning on a basically stock appearance, but with some of the emblems and chrome pieces removed. I may even have the top finished and go without vinyl just to see how it looks. I figure it's always easier to put the vinyl back than to pull it off.

Grilles: I got some very good '71Supreme grilles, so will likely use those. Those were the only metal grilles that Olds used in that time period. We actually replaced one or both of the grilles in the prior resto, but all the mounting tabs are broken again.

So far in the resto of the body there's not many surprises. Most of the panels are pretty straight, with just a little bit of rust damage to the lower portions of the right fender and quarter.

The interesting notes have been the windshield channels. There's lots of pitting along the upper portions of the right and left sides, as well as the bottom and top. All around, really. It took about 6 hours of sandblasting to get to this point.

Here's a closeup of that nice hole in the right side:

I covered that with POR 15 fiberglass and POR Patch, then a couple of coats of POR 15 paint, then a layer of POR Epoxy. Lots of POR products, but it's really solid. Easier than patching!

And the hole that kept growing on the left sail:

That hole I'm not touching.

I've ground out what I could, although the black spots that you can see are incredibly hard. I have no idea what that is. I cleaned and painted the channels with POR 15, filled the holes and bad pits with the POR 15 epoxy, and will top coat with the POR 15 Tie Coat primer. After that will probably be a quick spray of Eastwood's epoxy primer while I paint the cowl and dash.

I pulled out all the old seam sealer and stripped down the cowl and firewall. My goal is to close up the unused holes in the firewall and smooth it out. It almost looks like someone shot it with a shotgun! I'll be using Eastwood's epoxy primer and urethane underhood black for the firewall and cowl. The dash will also get a quick color spray with some interior paint.

Humorously, I ended up just replacing the cowl.

The floor pans are badly rusted on the right side. The front will get a patch panel, and the back will get the POR 15 fiberglass treatment, then more POR 15 over it all and some tie coat and epoxy primer to seal it.

All locks smoothed, AutoLoc 5 wire door lock actuators and remote, manual failsafe cable, stock power truck unit with manual failsafe. The lock kit was pretty simple, just used a single strap to help mount the solenoid. Handles converted to Kindigit spoons. All trim holes filled. Door hinges rebuilt. NOS fenders.

Almost everything else will be left to a shop. I've learned that I'm horrible at body work and should just hand that over!